Lake Conditions of Bangalore city

A report on Bengaluru’s system of lakes and canal networks highlights how scientific urban planning can result in efficient use of a city’s natural resources, equitable benefit sharing among its citizens, cleaner environments and a richer urban biodiversity. It also illustrates how a well-planned system can develop fault lines if taken for granted.

The report, by ATREE’s Harini Nagendra, Ramesh Sivaram, Federation of Resident Welfare Associations of Ward 150 and Dr. S. Subramanya, ornithologist, expounds on the current status of the water bodies in Bengaluru’s Mahadevpura constituency, and steps that can be taken for informed and scientific reclamation and restoration of these. The report, currently being shared with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, under which the management of these lakes is consolidated, aims to inform planning at a constituency and ward level.

http://www.atree.org/sites/default/files/Mahadevpura_report_Feb2011_ATREE.pdf

The original network of kere (lakes) in Bengaluru was linked through a web of canals or kaluve, connected to the surrounding agricultural-wetland landscape. The network was made up of numerous tanks, ranging from less than a hectare in size; to medium sized tanks of tens of hectares, and a few large tanks of hundreds of hectares in area. All were rain fed. The small and medium tanks were seasonal; only large tanks were perennial.

During the monsoon, the water levels were at their highest. Wetlands, orchards and agricultural fields surrounded the lake, and these were irrigated by water from open wells that were dependent on the ground water table recharged by nearby lakes. Water was used for domestic purposes such as washing, for drinking water, and to replenish the ground water table. Fishing was also done. Idols were immersed in the tanks during festivals. Since most lakes were seasonal, and pollution levels were low, siltation was easy to control. The silt was extracted every few years. The wetland-agricultural-grazing orchard landscape surrounding the lake acted as a natural watershed basin to recharge the lake with fresh precipitation.